User blog:Krysto2002/Gear Reviews
I will soon start reviewing non-faction gear for your battling pleasure. For those of you who have not already tried, there are better ways of fighting than just swinging your spike hammer around. Will begin work on this soon! I'll begin with the new weapons from Nexus Tower, especially those immediately overlooked. The first factor I will address is the absence/presence of charge up abilities. For those of you who have tried weapons with both you maight have noticed that when rapidly attacking some charge-ups tend to get in the way of normal attacks and in some occasions, when attacking normally, the reverse is also an issue. Remember, these are NOT valiant weapons and will NOT damage multiple enemies with basic attacks. Charge-ups however are known to have rediculously fast cooldowns and can be spammed to a degree that thankfully only the maelstrom have to worry about. (lighting being an exception as it makes farming a pain when the competition can zap all the enemies into a cinder) Compared to valiants, there is no contest really, valiants tend to win in the end since their abilities and charge ups are often superior, but come at a massive imagination cost, which for most situations is difficult to feed unless you are either A) paradox, B) accompanied by paradox, C) have a taste for lots of potions or D) are in Forbidden Valley, which for some reason drops WAY more power ups than any other world. (seriously, each ronin gives 6+ imagination and horsemen anywhere from 15 up).On a side note, most non-ranged weapons addressed in this section will deal 3 damage on jump strikes and 2 on ground pounds. That brings me to the first weapon of mention, the Zweihander. A little trivia, Zweihander is a german two-handed sword, literally meaning two handed. At 110,000 this sword has a HUGE price tag. At a glance the basic 3-3-3 is a major turn off as opposed to 3-3-4s and the 3-4-4 Savage club. Without a charge-up, this big sword is a bit more reliable than some of the other weapons. Dividing the new 2-handers into 2 groups (of 3-3-3 and 3-3-4) you get (A/I): 3-3-3: Zweihander (5/1), Scarlet Scythe (0/0), Heavy Staff (3/6) 3-3-4: Massive Spear (4/4), Little Friend (5/3), Mole Whacker (0/0) Back ot the weapon at hand(s), the Zweihander is best compared with "Little Friend" (the next weapon on my list). Having less attacks and worse stats, a higher price, not to mention being a shorter weapon, you would think the zweihander is the worse off of the two however allow me to begin by qualifying those statements. First, the difference is 10,000 coins, second the stats are off by 1 damage and 2 imagination, nothing to cry over. Third, despite the size difference, the attack range is apparently the same. Lastly, comparing the abilities, the Zweihander has an infinite use flashbang ability that takes about 8 seconds to recharge. This ability costs a minimal 3 imagination to use and effectively sends all nearby enemies flying. This makes the zweihander powerful against all non-ranging enemies, especially stromlings, pirates and ronin. My advice would be to attack your enemies as they approach, knock them back and then get first strike on them again. Repulsion can remove enemies from dangerous positions and in Forbidden Valley can always be used as a last resort to knock some enemies off cliffs. At 5 Armor 1 imagination, the Zweihander versus a Pilum/Hammer/Shield combo is debatable. You sacrifice a little in the way of imagination and attack and gain a potentially useful ability. Just remember that this ability may not work against ALL enemies so if you are facing, say, dragons, you probably should reconsider. Second on the list is the Little Friend. Strangely named and strangely built, this weapon is not nearly as aesthetically pleasing as the previous Zweihander, but then again I'm not complaining. Instead of the Zweihander's flashbang, the Little Friend has a built in money magnet, which completely confuses existing gear layouts. At first glance BEFORE paying the 100,000 price tag on this thing this sounds great (10,00 before it was fixed, a fine price by me) you would think a magnet is an awesome addition. Too bad its the Money Magnet version and not the Maelstrom Staff version. Yea... you should have asked about that BEFORE you paid. Well that is a HUGE strike against this weapon, as paying 5 imagination to momenteraly attract loot is not really useful at all, more so insulting. With 1 more attack and 2 more imagination I doubt if this is well worth the use when you can get better stats and attack from a shield and a pilum. 'Nuff said. Ranting aside, let's look at the Scarlet Scythe. As a first bonus, this weapon has cool sound effects... just saying. At 3-3-3 and no stats this weapon makes a huge trade off in terms of stats to abilities. First allow me to say that a mosaic shield and an ice saw of drowsiness do the exact same thing AND give you armor and imagination. However the two handed attack of the scythe does seem to be a bit larger. Let's face it, you can pay 80,000 for this cool looking scythe, or you can look less cool, get better stats but on the downside, obtaining the shield/saw combo is NOT by any means a walk in the park. One is a lengthy achievement, the other is a FV ultra rare... Now on to the Heavy Staff. This is no longer a slashing weapon like the sword/little friend. Instead, the staff seems to be a bashing attack, which strangely, has the EXACT same attack pattern with different sound effects. So excluding that as a factor let's jump on to the stats. Armor being quite a bit more valuable in this situation, the staff gives up 2 points of armor for a few points of imagination (3 as opposed to the friend, 5 as opposed to the sword). The extra imagination goes a short way to aiding the staff's main (only) use, which is healing. The staff has the healing pulse ability... just like the medic shield AND the padded toque. If you go with the shield you lose 3 imagination but free up space for a weapon of your choice. If you go with the hat, you sacrifice whatever awesome headgear you were wearing (I hope it was a headbash helm...) but again free up both hands. So is this 95,000 coin walking stick worth the tag? (for more than looks) In all honesty, you are better off with the shield and a pilum, however neither is as easy to get. Now for the massive spear. I'll make this breif. For armor for imagination is a fair trade off for a shield slot and the speed boost saves you the trouble of the bat helm which consumes your headgear slot... BUT WAIT... apparently THIS speed boost is not as special, it costs 3 imagination. So before using this, ask yourself if you feel like using 3 imagination every time you go from point A to point B. Let's face it, the bat helm holds a special place in our packs as being the most useful helmet. ever. Back to the spear, 3-3-4, respectable, 85,000 a little hefty. Would I use it... probably not. Ok, the mole whacker... this one is rather interesting and is one of the few worth thinking about. At 75,000 it is probably the cheapest but somehow quite a bit more interesting. At 3-3-4 we will level this with the savage club for now as you are trading ALL of your left hand stats for a charge up and an unlisted speed boost (why? I do not know). Now I'm not usually a fan of charge ups, but this one holds a special place for being so awesome. Since the stats are nill, the attack is fair and the off hand has already been addressed as being disappointing, let's get to this big hammer's specialty. "Deals damage and knocks back enemies". Nondescript, I know. What it really should say is 2 imagination = Uber pwnage. Now I'm not one to exaggerate, but this charge up is a bit different than others. You jump up and slam down creating a fiery explosion around you, dealing a hefty 5 damage and sending enemies flying. While they stagger back you are already ready to do the same thing over again. At 2 imagination, this is a steal and has a decent sized AoE to supplement its already painful attack. Ranged Weapons The ranged arsenal mainly consists of a few categories, among which are: Heavy hitters: Double blaster, long barrel blaster Mass damage: Launcher, Gat Gun, Spark Thrower Multi purpose: Capt. Jack's Volleygun, Overcharged Blaster At 3-3-4 the Double Blaster has the highest base stats of any gun in LU BUT at 3 imagination per full combo (one imagination per shot) it technically is the same as the Overcharged blaster which does the same damage with its charge up, but instead is also explosive... so you must always ask yourself, is it worth the sacrifice of an ability for stats or stats for ability? Thats always the question at hand with your guns. Now allow me to make a big note here with ranged weapons!! Your experience with ranged weapons will HIGHLY vary with your faction as I can do no more than say a space marauder with a gun is a DEADLY combo since their abilities fuel themselves. If you play paradox, I strongly recommend you take the time to pursue any ranged weapon you can find. So let's start with the spark thrower. It is certainly not the easiest weapon to obtain as it is achievement only and requires an incredible amount of work to finish. That being said, is this unusual weapon worth the time to obtain? If you are paradox, you will probably be thinking about the wormholer that does the same yet probably better, but consider also that the AoE for the spark thrower is wider but shorter, making mob elimination easy. However this flamethrower-like gun only does 2 damage per tick as opposed to the 3 from the wormholer. Additionally the damage stops after 9 imagination. That being said, Paradox agents, it's your choice, everyone else, this gun is fun, period, but in combat falls short when trying to overpower enemies without team backup. Unless you are really being mobbed, find a different gun. The launcher for me is more than just looks. Allow me to teach you a simple trick not enough people bother to learn with LU guns. If you time it just right you can keep attacking with a gun without hitting the end of your combo and waiting for the cooldown. All you need to do is slightly delay each shot. For the launcher this is more than a simple strategy, it is essential. Now to be fair, this gun does not do much damage, 2 damage per shot to be precise, but its explosive range makes it slightly more effective against mobs of enemies. But why is this weapon slightly better than other anti-mob weapons? This gun does not NEED to hit anything to be effective, you just need to aim in their general direction, the explosions do the rest. Now the Gat Gun Sprayer is special. So special in fact that it deserves a special home in everyone's pack. At first glance, as a 2-2-2 it looks like the launcher will win due to its AoE effect, but do not even THINK of comparing the two. For starters, the Gat Gun is a 3 for the price of 1 deal. Every shot gives you 3 bullets which spread out rather well. In a mob it is fun, but lining up the shots is a pain, so don't bother... however... did I mention they were 3 SEPERATE projectiles? Now that may not mean anything to you at first, but what it REALLY means is that if a single enemy is hit by all 3 shots at once they recieve a grand total of 6 damage... But of course there are very few targets in LU that big... just... oh... DRAGONS AND APES!! If you get up close to a large enemy with this gun, say goodbye to 2-2-2 and say hello to your very first 6-6-6 gun. Don't even think about dragon smashing without one now! Now you know my secret... make good use of it. At 75,000 there is no excuse, you will get your money back from dragons in NO time as few weapons will ever compare in power OR efficiency... or speed. Off Hand Working off the assumption that you are using a 1 handed weapon, it's time to decide what's going in your other hand. If you are wearing faction gear, then the only specialty that should even THINK about replacing their off hand item is Samurai since it only gives 1 armor, plus 2 armor and 3 imagination for being the last part in the kit. For those samurai out there, that makes the bow actually worth 3 armor 3 imagination, so unless your new item exceeds that or has a better ability, stick with the bow. But you probably are not usign samurai and you probably are not entirely sure what you're going to use in the off hand position. Well here's a brief review of some of your best choices when going into battle. First off, if you are looking for stats you should look no further. If the BEST STATS is all you want, then stick with either the Fleur-de-lis shield or the Wolf Shield. The FdL shield is 4/4 and the wolf shield is 5/2 so for the wolf shield is giving up 2 imagination for 1 armor... it's up to you which is more valuable. When the Nexus Force shield Mk III comes, if ever, then the wolf shield is pretty much obsolete since it will likely be 5/3. However assuming you are going into battle with this stuff and not just toting around for looks, you more than likely will be thinking about abilities too. Ok, so first I am going to measure a few mass damage items. I am going to compare the riot shield, ripsaw and bat shield. In terms of reliability the saw works best, then the riot shield and least reliable out of the trio is the bat shield. In terms of damage, the bat shield does the most (8), then the saw (6) then the shield (3). The Riot Shield has a knockdown, the Ripsaw has Knockback and the Bat Shield has a watered down stunning effect (short). Out of these side-effects, knockback takes the cake as being the best against non-ranged enemies. In terms of imagination, the Riot Shield takes 2, the Saw 3 and the Bat shield 4. In terms of cooldown, the Riot Shield is about 5 seconds, the Ripsaw is about 6 seconds and the bat shield is about 7 to 8 seconds, so the difference is not that significant. In terms of stats, the Riot Shield gives you the best defense at 4 armor, then the Bat Shield at 2 and 1 life and then the Ripsaw at just 2. Imagination-wise, the bat shield gives you 4, the ripsaw 3 and the riot shield 2. With the riot shield and ripsaw you don't have to move into your enemy so they are the easiest to use whereas the bat shield can be unreliable in its aiming and sometimes does not register your hit, causing you to run around your enemy. So its all a matter of preference really as to which you use. Personally I'd recommend the ripsaw if you do not need too much armor, however when the extra 3 damage per hit is not necessary then I'd thoroughly recommend the riot shield. As for the bat shield... its hard to get and very expensive on the market, so allow me to say that unless you already have it, save it for the full bat suit, you probably won't need it on a regular basis. Now for heavy-hitting items. I can only really fit 2 into this category at the moment, which are the Foreman's Radio and the Impact Wrench. Neither gives imagination so its only a matter of cooldown and damage. The impact Wrench does 12 damage to ONE target for 6 imagination and takes 20 seconds to recharge. The Radio does 9 damage in a small area for 5 imagination and takes 10 seconds to recharge. Do the math, it will tell you whether 3 damage is worth an extra IP, 10 seconds and not being able to hit nearby enemies. Ok, now for tactical and healing items. First off, here's a quick list: *Mosaic Shield *Construction Shield *Medic Shield *Evergiving Goblet *Skeleton Key *Oil Can *Sapphire Scepter Starting with the Mosaic Shield, you get a 3/2 shield which isn't bad, and you also get Shielding 2, which also isn't bad, so overall this is not a bad shield. A quick note on shielding 2... it is not nearly as useful as many make it out to be. You are protected from 10 damage and you can't put up a new shield for a minute or two all at the cost of 5 imagination. You are better off being able to heal that 10 damage in that amount of time IMO. Next is the construction shield. You get a 4/0 shield, so for now let's compare it with the FdL. You are sacrificing 4 imagination for a healing ability. The ability (repair armor 2) costs 2 imagination and gives 2 armor. Now unless you are using armor consumables, bass guitars, are playing assembly and ARE NOT on a team, this is actually your best bet for fighting. Now assuming you HAVE a Crux Armor (which is pretty hard to find but well worth it!) you are NOT losing anything. Actually, the 2 abilities have SEPERATE cooldown clocks, so feel free to use both. (Not to mention the armor buff no longer BUFFs armor... armor buff also costs one more imagination than it heals in armor so...) So is 4 imagination worth the ability to actively heal armor? Probably... it's up to you. The Medic Shield looks cool but is not exactly the best healer item out there... At 3/3 its a solid shield minus 1/1 from the FdL but gives you the healing pulse in return. Healing Pulse costs YOU 6 imagination and heals 10 life to everyone in a decent range. Here's the problem... 1) 10 life even as a maximum is tough to obtain without bat gear. A player without gear can have up to 9 life, 18 if you are bat lord, you get +1 from Assembly and Paradox kits and +2 from Venture so unless your whole team (excluding you) is bat lord you will hardly ever get the full use out of that 10 life. Not to mention that by the time you use it, whoever needs it is probably smashed... While you could argue that it is worth the 6 imagination you come back with after smashing, the goblet (later) will work MUCH better. The cool down is fast, but if you need to use it more than once in that short a period of time, let's face it, you're as good as smashed. And now for the Evergiving Goblet. This item is a godsend seeing as how it is easy to get, easy to use and does what it does well. Unlike the Construction shield that sacrificed 4 imagination, this goblet sacrifices the 4 armor instead. What you get from it is an ability that, when used right, is well worth the trouble. This takes about 10 seconds to reuse each time, but also seems to work on strangers and teammates too, so there's a karma bonus for you. What you get in the goblet is a quick use ability (a slight delay from use to effect so a little skill may be needed to make full use of it) that for 3 imagination (MAKE SURE YOU NEVER GO BELOW 3 WHEN USING THIS, I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH) gives you back 5 life and 10 imagination... that's quite a bit more than you paid. So if you are prone to smashing, this should probably be the first thing you use after rebuilding. Its best use is in tandem with a good ability, such as the nerfed sentinel helm or crux armor, which also has a shorter cooldown as well as guns, the jester cap, charge ups... anything that costs you imagination. With the goblet in hand you can become a make-shift paradox player from any faction! Skeleton Key = A summoner ability for everyone else. This key is a tactical gem! 3 imagination summons Bone Daddy, a lego island-esque skeleton who fights for you. His AI is perfect for survival and all around he just works. His HP is not too great, but he is durable enough to be worth the time. He summons fast and will actively seek out enemies for you, attacking them (doing 2 damage, I think, per hit). As a 1/1 you're giving up a lot to use him, but since the ability doesn't interfere with any others you can simply swap for the key then swap back if you really must. Now BD is not the smartest tool in the shed, but for the most part that's a good thing as he will either lead enemies to you or distract them while you do the real damage. If his distraction does not work, then you have someone supplementing YOUR attacks, so it's a win/win. He does not last all that long but in the meantime you can use your everlasting hiccup tablets 3-4 times in between so imagination is no issue either. The oil can is by far the most peculiar off hand I've used in a while. It has a lengthy cool down (about 20 seconds) and takes 5 imagination but most enemies caught in its attack are stunned slipping for a rather long time and STAY stunned for about as long as the cool down, even after you hit them. Don't know if it works on spiders/horsemen but I'll fix that when I can. As a bonus you get 1 armor with it, plus it is not too expensive. If you can figure out a reliable use for it ingame, I'm all ears... maybe murgle blotch... I'll try that eventually. Last up is the Sapphire Scepter. The Gem Scepter is now obsolete with the FdL shield (4/4 as opposed to 4/3). The Sapphire Scepter however is stranger... at just 4 armor all you are sacrificing is the imagination, but you get something called a guided laser... The scepter takes 5 imagination to use and cools down pretty fast, but each shot only does 3 damage so its a matter of preference since this is ranged unlike the riot shield. The Scepter will always fire 1 shot straight forward even if there are no targets nearby. If there ARE targets, the number of shots fired varies with how many targets and in what positions they are in. Up to 3 shots will fire and the scepter has a 360 degree radius, so any enemy within range will count. I you have enemies behind you the first shot will still go forward but another will go backward, so you may be wasting a shot especially since the first shot ALWAYS goes forward no matter what. In the long run, the first shot will usually lock on if the enemy is right in front of you, otherwise it will just travel off into the sunset. Again, another weapon of your choice, I would not entirely recommend it but there may be situations where it will come to use. Weapons: When 3/4/4 is worth having Currently in LU, ordinary weapons come in 11 different levels of attack (more may come some day) ranging from 1/1/1 to 3/4/4 but suprisingly there is a point where it makes no difference between one level and the next. This guide will explain when it's worth carrying an elite around. First off, a weapon's effectiveness varies mainly on the world it's used in. Since most worlds segregate enemies into different areas weapon choice is much easier as you can predict what enemies you'll fight. Crux however, has enemies in highly varied groups. In that situation, just go with whatever you can. To determine a weapon's effectiveness you need to compare how many hits it takes to down an enemy. Let's start with AG. Here you have stromlings and mechs. Stromlings have 1 hp and go down in one hit all the time, while mechs have 4 hp. Mechs, having the most hp are therefor the enemy upon which you'll base your weapon choice. At 4 hp the only weapon that can take a mech in one hit is the Broadsider, but we're not talking about valiants here so that means a mech must take 2 hits to smash. This being the case, a 2/2/2 and a 3/4/4 will be equally effective. Conclusion: when fighting in AG, there is no need to exceed 2/2/2 so have fun (a 1/2/3 will not do, as 1/2 cannot smash a mech)! The only difference for mechs is with a 3/3/4, in which case you can smash a second mech in 1 hit, but since finding 2 mechs so close together is rare, this situation is not worth prepping for. Spiderlings on the other hand are seperate from mechs and stromlings so the spider cave is almost its own world. Having 15 hp a spider is a bit tougher to take down. A 3/4/4 can down a spider in 5 hits and 2 spiders in 9 hits because the 3rd hit from the 2nd combo carries over. A 3/3/4 can down a spider in 5 hits and 2 spiders in 10 hits. A 3/3/3 can down a spider in 5 hits and 2 spiders in 10 hits. Only at 2/3/3 does the first spider take more than 5 hits to smash. In this situation, since spiders are typically spread out, it is rarely worth the upgrade from 3/3/3 to 3/4/4. Now on to GF Here we deal with apes, pirates and admirals. Since Apes are rarely fought WITH pirates and admirals, we'll keep them separate like we did with the spiders. Pirates have 8 hp, so only the Broadsider can take them in 2 hits, ANY other weapon above 2/3/3 will take a pirate down in 3 hits. Admirals on the other hand have 12 hp. A 3/3/3 will take one in 4 hits, a 3/3/4 or 3/4/4 will do the same. So agaIn, in GF you should stick with a 3/3/3 for smashing in Brig rock or at the Trench. Apes and Dragons are special. For any enemy that takes MORE than 3 full combos to smash every point of damage counts (In reality, the extra point of damage typically matters when the enemy takes more combos than the value of the first hit in the combo). Keeping this in mind, high HP enemies should be taken on with the highest combo possible. Now for FV. Here you have Statues, Ronin and Horsemen. Statues have 3 hp, so a 3/3/3 weapon is welcome. Ronin have 12 hp and, like admirals, 3/3/3 is your requirement. Horsemen on the other hand have 21 hp so damage might be a bit more significant. A 3/3/3 will take 7 hits, a 3/3/4 will take 7 hits, and a 3/4/4 will take 6. In this situation a 3/4/4 will save you one hit on a Horseman so it is entirely up to you if that difference is worth it, otherwise a 3/3/3 and a 3/3/4 will work evenly, so take your pick. (You are probably better of just sticking with an HToL as the imagination there will support its lighting charge) If anyone wants to go out and experiment with crux enemies to find their hp values, that will make things much easier. I will add to the next section as I get more info on crux enemies. Stromling invader: 5 hp, a 2/3/3 will suffice as only the Big One or a Wormholer can take these fellows in one hit. Shoulder Gear Amongst the shoulder items in LU, there is not much to choose from unless you are trying to look good rather than get the best out of your armor. Personally I think you should try and balance fashion and strength, but most people forgo both for gawdy rares like the BPSS. Parrots IMO are quite overrated as color doesn't really matter and their only REAL purpose is saying "look at me, I'm either rich or lucky". On the other hand Shoulders like the Epaulets of Authority and Quiver can look AWESOME in the right outfit. But I'm hear to tell you about the 3 main "best" shoulder items. *Shard Armor: 3/3, restores 3 armor after 5 hits (minimum of 5 damage!) *Nexus Force Cape: 3/3/1 *Crux Prime Armor: 4/4, armor buff 2 (+4 max armor temporarily) As for faction shoulders in game, you won't find anything that strong stat-wise but the abilities are top-notch (but take LOADS of imagination) but since not EVERYONE can use EVERY faction item (duh!) we'll save those for later. Each of those 3 main items have their particular uses. I know I've stressed the value of 1 armor compared to 1 imagination and 1 armor tends to be worth more since imagination doesn't matter when you're smashed. 1 LIFE, on the other hand, is hard to judge. I'll get to that in a moment. Starting with the Shard Armor, most people SAY it's the best but really don't understand it's uses. It's 3 armor, 3 imagination and has an odd ability that gives you back a little armor for getting hurt. Now that sounds like a dream come true, but 3 armor for 5 hits isn't much. If you're taking 2+ damage per hit, you'll be taking a lot of pain before you get back that paltry 3 armor. In any world besides AG that little compensation is NOT worth it! If each hit deals 1 damage, you lose 5 and get back 3 for a net loss of -2 (compared to the normal -5) but as soon as you start taking 2 damage per hit you're losing 10 for 3 and you plummet to -7, -12 for 3 damage and for dragons who can spit out 5 damage fire balls.... well it's your funeral. The Nexus Cape is a little better stat-wise but lacks the armor compensation. But the NFC has one major and handy use in LU: Put it on a bat lord and that extra 1 life is WELL worth the difference between the CPA. A bat lord gets back 3 life per smash and with a 3/3/4 and some strong abilities that extra stat boost (plus the fact that it's a CAPE and the original Basil had a light gray cape, this one is DG but no one is going to complain :P) is extremely useful. The bat lord, in use, can be supplemented with either extra armor to make up for their low 5 armor but in this case it is probably easier to work for the cape than buy the CPA for a fortune (or chance finding one) in which case the difference isn't much. The Crux Prime Armor (CPA) is a well rounded (and hard to find) armor. At 4/4 it has the highest net stat increase of all shoulder items and with Armor Buff 2 it makes a mini sentinel out of anyone. To quickly explain Armor Buff, you pour out some imagination (pray for a paradox teammate, I think it takes 5 per minute) and push up your max armor by 4 for one minute, effectively making the CPA 8/4 for a while. Alone this isn't THAT much, but in a full team, your friends will be thanking you for giving EVERYONE that armor. As with all sentinels, get 4 people each with their own and now everyone is iron tough (+4 X 4 = +16 each, an extra +2 per rank 3 sentinel who give +6 instead, note that this is on the SAME cooldown timer so you cannot use BOTH. If you are going for full sentinel, stick with the helmet). In a game of survival, that minute buff can give your team enough power to push back advancing spiders. In conclusion, assuming you have all 3 at your disposal, the SA is best in AG, the NFC is best with Bat Lord and the CPA should be on any non-faction/specialty kit that already has their own shoulders. Headgear I'm going to fill in more later, but for now I'll stick to the top 4. *Bat Lord Helm *Dragon Helm MK III *Headbash Helm *Mosaic Jester Cap The Bat lord helm is 1/3/1 which for a helmet is pretty weak. Since, without bat lord's multi part bonus, 1 life is about equal to 1 armor, this thing is only 2/3 (same as the Mosaic Cap). In exchange for the loss of strength you get a free speed boost which must be re-applied every now and then, but more speed is better than less speed especially out of battle, so tactically, use it from getting from point A to point B and for making long jumps. The DHMKIII is 5/5, the highest powered helm in game thus far and probably the most expensive. It's big, it's a bright yellow (possibly a light gold, but as close to yellow as it gets) and it's gawdy but in terms of stats it gets no stronger. If you want stats, you've come to the right place. It's also rare and expensive so... The Headbash helm, unlike the DHMKIII, is only 4/4 and sacrifices 1 armor and 1 imagination for the headbash. It's a white-silver spiked helmet (like the mega helm except with better stats) and ANYONE can get it with hard work. Headbash is a straightforward ability, 3 imagination for 10 damage to 1 target. A moderate/fast cooldown means you can use it often. Normally a full combo from your weapon already means that using this helmet instead of attacking is not the idea here. Instead, use that 10 damage to supplement your combo on tough targets like dragons who can knock you away. Overall, that 10 damage more than worth the extra 1/1 and high price tag/rarity on the DH as it is essentially a half-damage broom but cools down more than twice as fast so you'll use it more. Lastly is the Mosaic Cap, the supposedly rarest hat in the game due to its massive price tag easily passing $1,000,000 in most cases. Stat-wise it's pretty weak at 2/3 and the ability takes a load of imagination (10) per use. Why use it? Well it's a paradox's best friend and even to other factions the disco-ball turret (which can home in on, auto target and blast up to 3 enemies at once for 3 damage each) is a handy little friend. Since Paradox doesn't always need the extra armor and imagination from their kit (as most should have a team :P) that loss is worth the mass damage the disco dazzle does. The only real sacrifice is the effort in GETTING one. Category:Blog posts